vonringsSo the CrossFit games Open workout 14.4 is in the books.  As I have said before, I’m nowhere near the level of CrossFit competitor that will do extremely well in the Open or much less get anywhere close to going to regionals.  Remember, that’s not my goal.  However, I do love the Open, and I love comparing myself to other athletes and other CrossFit gyms.  It’s so much fun.  The “Muscle Up” has been a movement that has really “separated the men from the boys” (if you will) in the past.  It pops up in one of the wods during the open and a good number of people just have no hope of getting one.  Up until last year (13.3)  I was one of those people.  Except during 13.3 I was determined that I was going to get one muscle up.  I practiced, got my muscle ups, but when it came down to the wire I was just too tired to make it happen.  I stopped short of the muscle up last year and I’ve been pissed off about it ever since.  This year I had it in the bag.  I’ve been doing EMOM muscle ups in training once or twice every week.  I made sure to get good at muscle ups when I was tired and worn out so that I would be able to handle them during the open where I knew I’d have to do a bunch of other work before having to bang out muscle ups.  When I saw 14.4 I saw my chance, but I was really worried because they made it pretty tough to even get to the muscle ups:

14.4

14 Minute AMRAP

  • 60 Calorie Row
  • 50 Toes to Bar
  • 40 Wall Balls
  • 30 Power Cleans (135 lbs)
  • 20 Muscle Ups

Tough one.  Luckily my Barbell Shrugged crew gave some good tips.

Anyway, I planned on as high as a 4:00 row, but when it came time to do it I actually finished the row in under 3 minutes feeling pretty good.  I broke the Toes to Bar up into sets of 4 right from the start.  I don’t even remember how I broke the Wall Balls up.  Power cleans went in 1’s and 2’s for all 30. I finished the power cleans with about 1:30 left in the workout.  I got myself here, and this was my chance!  I immediately jumped on the rings and missed the first Muscle Up.  I was pissed.  I made myself relax, and reminded myself of all the cues that I’ve come up with during training:  Jump high enough to get into the false grip, relax, etc.  I hit the rings again and got my head through!  I felt great and was super happy!  Here is me at the top.  Haha, I was fired up!

vonmu

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